Can technology fix climate change?

TRANSCRIPT

Question: Can technology fix global warming?

Copeland: Oh absolutely. I mean if you are, as I am, a believer that . . . that climate change is . . . is at the very least partially the result of human activities, there is no question that technology can help solve this problem. And listen. I dream of a world where cars are silent and have zero emissions; where every packaging that we have is biodegradable; where our activities do not contribute to polluting our soil and do not contribute to polluting our air; and that we live in a fully holistic and carbon neutral fashion. So in order to get to this point, considering virtually everything that we do today is autonomous to what I’ve just said, technology has everything to do with reducing that footprint. I mean we need to develop a form of energy that relies on renewable sources – air, and geothermal, and wind, and hydro, and you know . . . and to create a system where vehicles are charged through those . . . that form of renewable energy, and thereby emit zero, and still get us to where we need to be on time – where we can exist in such a way where we can reduce technology to reduce our footprint; you know by promoting natural environments instead of destroying them as a result of our growth. Recorded on: 12/3/07

Big Think Edge helps organizations by catalyzing conversation around the topics most critical to 21st century business success. Led by the world’s foremost experts, our dynamic learning programs are short-form, mobile, and immediately actionable.